I’m a fan of Laura Bickle‘s writing, but I’m also a fan of the lady herself. (No she didn’t pay me to say that. *g*) Embers, the first book in the unique Anya Kalinczyk series, came out earlier this year – and Sparks (book 2) has recently been released. It gives me great pleasure to introduce Laura over here for a guest post and giveaway.

Here’s Laura on ‘magical places’ (totally appropriate considering how cool and magical her worldbuilding is) – and stick around until the end for a giveaway. 🙂

Magical Places
by Laura Bickle

There are some places in the real world that have just stuck with me as I write, and have managed to work their way into my fictional worlds. These places have their own magic, their own special gravity that pulls pieces of stories around them.

When I was a child, I visited Serpent Mound with my grandfather. It’s the largest effigy mound in the U.S., shaped like a serpent swallowing an egg. The serpent coils over a preternaturally-silent meadow that smells like sunshine and fresh-cut grass. No one really knows what it was used for, and I always wondered. In my stories as an adult, it became the burial ground for a dragon in EMBERS, haunted by a ghostly woman who keeps guard to make sure the dragon sleeps: www.greatserpentmound.com

The Detroit Salt Mine, which was closed down for a period of time, is another such magical place. Stretching for miles beneath the city, it’s a series of glittering caverns. You can taste the salt and feel it crunching underfoot. It made the perfect lair for another sleeping dragon in my books

Detroit Salt Mine

The Detroit Museum of Arts captured my imagination. DIA houses a piece of the Ishtar Gate, and the tiles show an image of a Babylonian dragon-like creature called a Sirrush. This artifact inspired the idea that Anya has a piece of the mythological goddess, Ishtar, within her. It also gave me a name for the dragon sleeping in the Salt Mine. The giant dragon, the granddaddy of all fire elementals, became a Sirrush in the world of EMBERS.

Michigan Central Station stands as a ruined hulk in Detroit, a husk of a building with broken out windows overlooking debris and unused train tracks. But you can still see its bones, how beautiful it was when it was built, when it stood in a city that was called “The Paris of the East.” Despite the graffiti inside and the lack of electricity, it’s easy to imagine it as I did, as a way station for traveling spirits in SPARKS: www.forgottendetroit.com/mcs/photos.html

What magical places in the real world have you written or read about? Are there some that inhabit larger amounts of real estate in your head than others, places that are absolutely unforgettable?

–Laura Bickle is the author of EMBERS and SPARKS from Pocket-Juno Books. Laura Bickle has worked in the unholy trinity of politics, criminology, and technology for several years. She and her chief muse live in the Midwest, owned by four mostly-reformed feral cats. More information on her work can be found at www.salamanderstales.com

“One of the most promising debut novels I’ve read in a great while… I’d highly recommend this book to anybody who reads fantasy. It reminds me in many regards…of another exceptional first novel…Emma Bull’s seminal War for the Oaks, and there’s not much higher praise that I can give.”
— Elizabeth Bear, Tor.com

SPARKS:

WITHOUT A TRACE. Anya Kalinczyk is the rarest type of psychic medium, a Lantern, who holds down a day job as an arson investigator with the Detroit Fire Department–while working 24/7 to exterminate malicious spirits plaguing a city plagued by unemployment and despair. Along with her inseparable salamander familiar, Sparky, Anya has seen, and even survived, all manner of fiery hell–but her newest case sparks suspicions of a bizarre phenomenon that no one but her eccentric team of ghost hunters might believe: spontaneous human combustion.

After fire consumes the home of elderly Jasper Bernard, Anya is stunned to discover his remains– or, more precisely, the lack of them; even the fiercest fires leave some trace of their victims–and she is sure this was no naturally-occurring blaze. Soon she’s unearthed a connection to a celebrity psychic who preys on Detroit’s poor, promising miracles for money. But Hope Solomon wants more–she’s collecting spirits, and in a frantic race against time, Anya will face down an evil adversary who threatens her fragile relationship with her lover, her beloved Sparky’s freshly-hatched newts, and the wandering souls of the entire city.

—

Laura is giving away TWO signed copies of Sparks – just leave a comment on this entry by the end of the day Monday, October 18th, and I’ll announce the two winners soon after. Giveaway is open to all – get commenting!

73 Responses to Guest Author & Giveaway: Laura Bickle

Hi Karen!
Thank you for introducing me to Laura Bickle and her writing. Her series sounds intriguing!
I tried to order EMBERS from Book Depository but it’s out of stock. (Sold out! *Yay for Laura*)
Will try Borders next…
Thank you to Laura for sharing here today. (& for the haunting pictures).
Magical places in the world…
I’ve got to say Ireland, Scotland & Wales.
(Just read about them. A lot.)
🙂
All the best,
RK Charron

These books sound fabulous! And I’m frustrated now because I come from Michigan but never knew about the Detroit Salt Mine – I will DEFINITELY be visiting next time I visit home! Please enter me in the giveaway if it’s open internationally.

Once I got a book and inside it came a bookplate (or big, square bookmark, as I see it -and use it) from Embers, and it has been on my wishlist since then. I didn’t know the second book in the series was out yet, I think it’s a sign for me to finally order Embers! I love female strong leads, spirits and investigations!:D

I’ll love to enter this contest, but please, only toss my name on that hat if international entries are allowed. Thank you 😉

I love Big Bend in Texas. It’s beautiful! Of course, I also remember my dad getting car-sick on the drive since it twists a lot (lol)… also, the ocean in Massachusetts is an even more vivid memory for me. Since I live in the middle of Texas, that first gulp of sea water was SO unexpected! : )
Thanks for the giveaway.

Christa, I live in the midwest, so I know about the magic of seeing the ocean for the very first time. I think that I was eleven or so. I couldn’t believe how darn big it was! Last time I saw the ocean was a few years ago…Cannon Beach, Oregon. That’s another magical place that I’d love to write about (though the Goonies beat me to it!).

Tez, I’m totally adding Signs of the Zodiac to my TBR list! I love lairs! Thanks for the tip.

Steph, the Salt Mine is very cool…and it’s now open for tours! You can taste the salt in the air…just the perfect dragon cave.

jen7waters, I’m thrilled to learn that those postcards are making the rounds. 😉

Christa, I live in the midwest, so I know about the magic of seeing the ocean for the very first time. I think that I was eleven or so. I couldn’t believe how darn big it was! Last time I saw the ocean was a few years ago…Cannon Beach, Oregon. That’s another magical place that I’d love to write about (though the Goonies beat me to it!).

The catacombs in Paris! When some of the graveyards in Paris had to make room for housing, the bones that were dug up were placed in the catacombs and are there still.
I read about the catacombs in a dutch comic (January Jones) and thought they sounded creepy, but also a weird and magical place to visit.
I actually did visit them when I was in Paris and was surprised to find they weren’t creepy at all, but in fact very peaceful.

I love going to cities and looking, really looking, at some of the old buildings. In New York, the facades of a lot of buildings are unchanged above the first or second story, so you can see some really interesting architectural details. One of my favorite places was recently renovated, the old Pan-Am Clipper terminal at LaGuardia. I love art deco and am so glad they brought this building back to life.

I haven’t written about it, but someday, I intend to; the Nelson-Atkins Museum of art in Kansas City has a sort of magical feel to it. There’s some collections – the Chinese collection specifically – that feel like there’s just something different about them, like they’re not just ordinary objects.

Elizabeth, I adore museums. I included a piece of the Ishtar Gate at the Detroit Institute of Arts in EMBERS, and many pieces and ghosts in their collection in SPARKS. I could lose myself in museums. Sigh.

Carien…I would so much love to visit the catacombs! I’m very jealous that you got to see them in person…and intrigued that they were so peaceful.

Karen, I love art deco. I’ve never been to New York, but might get to go next year. I’ll put that one on my list!

Elizabeth, I adore museums. I included a piece of the Ishtar Gate at the Detroit Institute of Arts in EMBERS, and many pieces and ghosts in their collection in SPARKS. I could lose myself in museums. Sigh.

Thanks, Hester! I really lucked out. The artist is Chris McGrath, who does the covers for Butcher’s Dresden Files.

Hi, Janicu…the mine is very, very cool. I’ve never heard of another mine that’s actually beneath a city like that.

Sounds great. Thanks for sharing! I love mountain scenes. Something about them just adds to the effect for me. Along with of course cities I have visited of lived in, really adds to the story when you have seen the actual location. For places that might not really exist, I agree totally with the person above and the lair in the Signs of the Zodiac series is absolutely amazing.

Embers was a great introduction to Anya Kalinczyk; Sparks is on my to read pile–something great to look forward to. Most magical place is definitely Ireland–such a small country, but so full of magic you’d swear it was Pangea.

In England there are several places with chalk drawings on the hillsides. You can see them for miles around but when you get up close you can hardly see they are there.
Nobody is really sure why they were created.